WOHO wrote:WSPD-TV (precursor of WTVG) did not air the original SNL's from 75-79; a 'summary show' was the first time it was broadcast in Toledo. Had to rely on the rare times that Buckeye remembered to switch the CH4 feed from WSPD to WDIV (or was it that yet?). They had the Storer Broadcasting "good ethics code" that they adhered to in a fancy white parchment frame that they aired at nightly sign-off, so no SNL in it's heyday when WSPD was still the NBC affiliate.

Also, getting tired of not getting my "Jeopardy! fix" with the NCAA BB starting earlier this year- last year it was 7:30pm and they ran Jeopardy in the Wheel slot at 7pm, but now neither air on WTOL, that I know of, on the 7pm NCAA BB nights.

Buckeye Cable didn't start doing that until 1988 or '89. I recall WDIV's NBC feed being left alone back in the early 80's.

WOHO wrote:WSPD-TV (precursor of WTVG) did not air the original SNL's from 75-79; a 'summary show' was the first time it was broadcast in Toledo. Had to rely on the rare times that Buckeye remembered to switch the CH4 feed from WSPD to WDIV (or was it that yet?).

WNEM in Saginaw also didn't carry SNL until after the original cast left in 1980 -- my only exposure to SNL at the time were the best-of clip specials in prime-time. The only way for many to see the show was on cable -- at first via WKBD Detroit then, after WDIV finally picked it up, a neighboring NBC affiliate. I didn't have cable at the time, though the Gerity Cable system in Bay City might have carried SNL on its local access / wild card channel, via Grand Rapids affiliate WOTV (today's WOOD).

WOHO wrote:WSPD-TV (precursor of WTVG) did not air the original SNL's from 75-79; a 'summary show' was the first time it was broadcast in Toledo. Had to rely on the rare times that Buckeye remembered to switch the CH4 feed from WSPD to WDIV (or was it that yet?).

WNEM in Saginaw also didn't carry SNL until after the original cast left in 1980 -- my only exposure to SNL at the time were the best-of clip specials in prime-time. The only way for many to see the show was on cable -- at first via WKBD Detroit then, after WDIV finally picked it up, a neighboring NBC affiliate. I didn't have cable at the time, though the Gerity Cable system in Bay City might have carried SNL on its local access / wild card channel, via Grand Rapids affiliate WOTV (today's WOOD).

In Bay City, probably more likely WPBN or WILX than WOTV/WOOD

I read in an old Television and Cable Factbook around the early 1980s that they got its alternate NBC programming from the then-WOTV, rather than the other affiliates.

WOHO wrote:WSPD-TV (precursor of WTVG) did not air the original SNL's from 75-79; a 'summary show' was the first time it was broadcast in Toledo. Had to rely on the rare times that Buckeye remembered to switch the CH4 feed from WSPD to WDIV (or was it that yet?).

WNEM in Saginaw also didn't carry SNL until after the original cast left in 1980 -- my only exposure to SNL at the time were the best-of clip specials in prime-time. The only way for many to see the show was on cable -- at first via WKBD Detroit then, after WDIV finally picked it up, a neighboring NBC affiliate. I didn't have cable at the time, though the Gerity Cable system in Bay City might have carried SNL on its local access / wild card channel, via Grand Rapids affiliate WOTV (today's WOOD).

In Bay City, probably more likely WPBN or WILX than WOTV/WOOD

I read in an old Television and Cable Factbook around the early 1980s that they got its alternate NBC programming from the then-WOTV, rather than the other affiliates.

How were they able to receive what is now WOOD-TV all the way out in Bay City?

My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!

I read in an old Television and Cable Factbook around the early 1980s that they got its alternate NBC programming from the then-WOTV, rather than the other affiliates.

How were they able to receive what is now WOOD-TV all the way out in Bay City?

I don't know? Either microwave, or an off-air pickup from a giant receiving antenna (which actually was not uncommon among cable systems before the advent of fiber). Apart from WDIV and WILX, WOTV's transmitter in Middleville is just as close to Bay City as, if not closer than, WPBN or WTOM.

There were extreme cases though-at least in 1987, neither WDIV nor WTVG cleared Super Password. The closest affiliate that cleared it was WKYC, which was still at the time owned by NBC (and consequently also the closest American network-owned station, as WXYZ had just been sold to Scripps at the start of 1986).

Reposting this since the original is of course lost, I found out through Radio Discussions that CKCO (which the Detroit Free Press had in their TV listings at the time) also aired Super Password, though on a half-hour delay. With their channel 42 translator in Sarnia, this was most likely how Detroiters managed to watch Super Password without waiting for cable reruns, even if that meant enduring a snowy signal because 42 purposely aimed their signal away from the States.

This coming Thanksgiving, both the NBC coverage of and the CBS coverage of the Macy's Parade in New York City will be preempted in at least two Michigan markets.

In Detroit, WDIV is, of course, dumping the NBC version to show America's Thanksgiving Parade. Meanwhile, in Lansing, WLNS is preempting the CBS version so they can simulcast America's Thanksgiving Parade from WDIV.

My furthest DTV tropo: KDKA Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at 202 miles for three days in January 2017 and a night in September 2017 with only an Antennas Direct C2V!